A guideline is proposed that comprises the minimum items to be reported in research studies involving an eye tracker and human or non-human primate participant(s). This guideline was developed over a 3-year period using a consensus-based process via an open invitation to the international eye tracking community. This guideline will be reviewed at maximum intervals of 4 years.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Multiple sclerosis (MS) is a degenerative disease with typical onset between 20 and 50 years of age. An increase in MS cases has been found in the adolescent US population. Adolescents require fine motor manipulation skills for their functional and academic performance.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFIntroduction: While physical activity (PA) is recognized as important in Huntington's disease (HD) disease management, there has been no long-term evaluation undertaken. We aimed to evaluate the feasibility of a nested (within cohort) randomized controlled trial (RCT) of a physical therapist-led PA intervention.
Methods: Participants were recruited from six HD specialist centers participating in the Enroll-HD cohort study in Germany, Spain and U.
Unlabelled: Parkinson's disease (PD) is a neurodegenerative disease in which the progressive loss of dopaminergic neurons (DA) leads to initially sporadic and eventually widespread damage of the nervous system resulting in significant musculoskeletal and cognitive deterioration. Loss of motor function alongside increasing cognitive impairment is part of the natural disease progression. Gait is often considered an automatic activity; however, walking is the result of a delicate balance of multiple systems which maintain the body's center of mass over an ever-changing base of support.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Postural control impairments begin early in Huntington's disease yet measures most sensitive to progression have not been identified. The aims of this study were to: 1) evaluate postural control and gait in people with and without Huntington's disease using wearable sensors; and 2) identify measures related to diagnosis and clinical severity.
Methods: 43 individuals with Huntington's disease and 15 age-matched peers performed standing with feet together and feet apart, sitting, and walking with wearable inertial sensors.
Background: The Expanded Disability Status Scale (EDSS) is widely utilized in clinical trials and routine care to evaluate disease burden and progression among people with multiple sclerosis (pwMS). However, instrumental gait measures may be more suitable than EDSS to track walking disability in pwMS. In this cross-sectional study, we aimed to quantify the variability of spatiotemporal gait measures within homologous EDSS categories.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFHuntington's disease (HD) leads to altered gait patterns and reduced daily-living physical activity. Accurate measurement of daily-living walking that takes into account involuntary movements (e.g.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Individuals with Huntington's disease (HD) have impairments in performing dual-tasks, however, there is limited information about the effects of changing postural and cognitive demands as well as which measures are best suited as markers of underlying motor-cognitive interference.
Methods: Forty-three individuals with HD and 15 healthy controls (HC) completed single tasks of walking (Timed Up & Go (TUG), 7 m walk), standing (feet together, feet apart and foam surface) and seated cognitive performance (Stroop, Symbol Digit Modalities Test (SDMT), Delis-Kaplan Executive Function System (DKEFS) Sorting test) and dual cognitive-motor tasks while standing (+ Stroop) and walking (+ DKEFS, TUG cognitive). APDM Opal sensors recorded measures of postural sway and time to complete motor tasks.
Background: Understanding the contribution of anticipatory postural adjustments (APA) to walking ability in individuals with Huntington's disease (HD) may provide insight into motor planning and the functional consequences of HD-specific cortical-basal ganglia pathway dysfunctions.
Research Question: How do inertial measurement unit (IMU)-derived APAs and first step parameters differ between individuals with HD and non-HD peers under no load and cognitive load conditions, and what is their relationship to gait speed and clinical measures?
Methods: 33 individuals with manifest HD and 15 non-HD peers wore three Opal APDM IMUs during a 14-meter walk under no load and cognitive load conditions. APA acceleration amplitudes, APA durations, first step range of motion (ROM), and first step durations were compared, along with their relationship to gait speed.
The original version of this article unfortunately contained a mistake. The name of one author is not presented correctly in the author group.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Impaired gait plays an important role for quality of life in patients with Huntington's disease (HD). Measuring objective gait parameters in HD might provide an unbiased assessment of motor deficits in order to determine potential beneficial effects of future treatments.
Objective: To objectively identify characteristic features of gait in HD patients using sensor-based gait analysis.
Parkinson's disease (PD) is a complex diagnosis commonly associated with motor dysfunction, but known to comprise cognitive, psychiatric, and mood disturbances as well. Music has been successfully used to address motor and non-motor symptoms of PD. Still, little is known about the nature of an individual with PD's experience and relationship with music on conceptual and emotional levels, which may factor into their engagement in music-based techniques to ameliorate impairments.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Exercise is emerging as an important aspect in the management of disease-related symptoms and functional decline in people with Huntington disease (HD). Long-term evaluation of physical activity and exercise participation in HD has yet to be undertaken.
Objective: The objective is to investigate the feasibility of a nested randomized controlled trial (RCT) alongside a longitudinal observational study of physical activity and exercise outcomes in people with HD.
Background: The ability of healthy individuals to detect biological motion by using a small number of moving points is well established in animals and humans. Perception of human movements may depend on internal models that drive self-generated movements and influence motion discrimination (Reed CL et al. 1995 and 2007).
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThis paper provides a narrative review of cognitive motor interference in neurodegeneration, including brain imaging findings specific to interference effects in neurodegenerative disease, and dual task assessment and intervention in Parkinson's disease (PD), multiple sclerosis (MS), and Huntington's disease (HD). In a healthy central nervous system the ability to process information is limited. Limitations in capacity to select and attend to inputs influence the ability to prepare and perform multiple tasks.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Large animal models, such as the transgenic (tg) Huntington disease (HD) minipig, have been proposed to improve translational reliability and assessment of safety, efficacy and tolerability in preclinical studies. Minipigs are characterised by high genetic homology and comparable brain structures to humans. In addition, behavioural assessments successfully applied in humans could be explored in minipigs to establish similar endpoints in preclinical and clinical studies.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Huntington's disease (HD) is an autosomal-dominant, progressive neurodegenerative disorder with motor, cognitive, behavioral and metabolic symptoms. HD patients exhibit an altered response to stress which is reflected in changes of cortisol levels. Large animal models of HD such as the Libechov minipig are currently explored in preclinical studies to improve translational reliability and assessing behavior is of interest.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Deficits in posture and gait are known to contribute to the complex motor phenotype of Huntington disease (HD). Objective and quantitative measures of posture and gait provided by posturography and GAITRite assessments may supplement categorical rating scales such as the UHDRS-TMS and increase power and sensitivity of clinical trials.
Objectives: To investigate whether posturography and GAITRite measures reveal (1) changes in manifest or premanifest HD mutation-carriers, (2) a correlation to the UHDRS-TMS and functional measures in manifest HD, and (3) a correlation to the disease-burden-score (based on CAG-repeat-length and age).
Background: Large animal models of Huntington's disease (HD) may increase the reliability of translating preclinical findings to humans. Long live expectancy offers opportunities particularly for disease modifying approaches, but also challenges. The transgenic (tg) HD minipig model assessed in this study exhibits a high genetic homology with humans, similar body weight, and comparable brain structures.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe study of dual task interference has gained increasing attention in the literature for the past 35 years, with six MEDLINE citations in 1979 growing to 351 citations indexed in 2014 and a peak of 454 cited papers in 2013. Increasingly, researchers are examining dual task cost in individuals with pathology, including those with neurodegenerative diseases. While the influence of these papers has extended from the laboratory to the clinic, the field has evolved without clear definitions of commonly used terms and with extreme variations in experimental procedures.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe purpose of this article is to provide a brief review of the principles of motor control and learning. Different models of motor control from historical to contemporary are presented with emphasis on the Systems model. Concepts of motor learning including skill acquisition, measurement of learning, and methods to promote skill acquisition by examining the many facets of practice scheduling and use of feedback are provided.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFParkinson's disease (PD) degrades balance control. Haptic (touch and proprioception) feedback from light contact with a stationary surface inadequate to mechanically stabilize balance improves balance control in healthy people. In this study we tested whether PD impairs use of haptic cues independent of mechanical support to control balance.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFCell phone use among pedestrians leads to increased cognitive distraction, reduced situation awareness and increases in unsafe behavior. Performing a dual-task, such as talking or texting with a cell phone while walking, may interfere with working memory and result in walking errors. At baseline, thirty-three participants visually located a target 8m ahead; then vision was occluded and they were instructed to walk to the remembered target.
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